Outdoor dining to return in LA County this week

Officials prepare to open some businesses, but warn against assuming “normalcy”

(iStock)
(iStock)

Outdoor dining is set to return in Los Angeles County by the end of the week, officials said Monday, following the state’s lifting of stay-at-home orders.

Several other types of activities and businesses can resume at 50 percent capacity, including card rooms, zoos, aquariums and recreational facilities, according to the L.A. Daily News.

The state lifted its stay-at-home orders statewide Monday, returning counties to the color-coded coronavirus risk system that has been in place since the spring.

L.A. County is in the most severe of the four tiers for the spread of Covid-19 — the purple or “widespread” category.

“Timing and safeguards will be instituted, but please don’t take this news to mean you can return to normalcy,” said L.A. County Board of Supervisors Chairperson Hilda Solis.

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Solis added that “the situation can change overnight” and warned that “more restrictions could be needed if noncompliance leads to more transmission and hospitalizations.”

The state’s stay-at-home orders were put in place in many regions of the state in early December as Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations snowballed. For a period in December, there were no free ICU beds to treat Covid patients.

Business owners and restaurant owners in particular were vocal critics of the orders. One L.A. County businessperson sued the state, alleging the policy wasn’t based on science.

The county had implemented its own stay-at-home order a week prior. That remains in effect until Friday. [LADN] — Dennis Lynch